Commodore 128
The Commodore 128, also known as the C128, C-128, C= 128,[n 1] or
occasionally CBM 128, is the last
8-bit home computer that was
commercially released by Commodore Business Machines (CBM). Introduced
in January 1985 at the CES in Las Vegas, it appeared three years after
its predecessor, the bestselling Commodore 64.
The C128 is a significantly expanded successor to the C64, with nearly
full compatibility. The newer machine has 128 kB of
RAMRAM in two 64
kB banks, and an 80-column color video output. It has a redesigned
case and keyboard. Also included is a
Zilog Z80Zilog Z80 CPU which allows the
C128 to run CP/M, as an alternative to the usual Commodore BASIC
environment
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Structured ProgrammingStructured programming is a programming paradigm aimed at improving
the clarity, quality, and development time of a computer program by
making extensive use of the structured control flow constructs of
selection (if/then/else) and repetition (while and for), block
structures, and subroutines in contrast to using simple tests and
jumps such as the go to statement, which can lead to "spaghetti code"
that is potentially difficult to follow and maintain.
It emerged in the late 1950s with the appearance of the
ALGOL 58 and
ALGOL 60 programming languages,[1] with the latter including support
for block structures. Contributing factors to its popularity and
widespread acceptance, at first in academia and later among
practitioners, include the discovery of what is now known as the
structured program theorem in 1966,[2] and the publication of the
influential "Go To Statement Considered Harmful" open letter in 1968
by Dutch computer scientist Edsger W
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IBM PC
The
IBMIBM Personal Computer, commonly known as the
IBMIBM PC, is the
original version and progenitor of the
IBM PC compatibleIBM PC compatible hardware
platform. It is
IBMIBM model number 5150, and was introduced on August
12, 1981. It was created by a team of engineers and designers under
the direction of
Don Estridge of the
IBMIBM Entry Systems Division in
Boca Raton, Florida.
The generic term personal computer was in use before 1981, applied as
early as 1972 to the Xerox PARC's Alto, but because of the success of
the
IBMIBM Personal Computer, the term "PC" came to mean more
specifically a desktop microcomputer compatible with IBM's Personal
Computer branded products
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Operating System
An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer
hardware and software resources and provides common services for
computer programs.
Time-sharingTime-sharing operating systems schedule tasks for efficient use of the
system and may also include accounting software for cost allocation of
processor time, mass storage, printing, and other resources.
For hardware functions such as input and output and memory allocation,
the operating system acts as an intermediary between programs and the
computer hardware,[1][2] although the application code is usually
executed directly by the hardware and frequently makes system calls to
an OS function or is interrupted by it
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Alt Key
The
Alt keyAlt key (pronounced /ˈɔːlt/ or /ˈʌlt/) on a computer keyboard
is used to change (alternate) the function of other pressed keys.
Thus, the
Alt keyAlt key is a modifier key, used in a similar fashion to the
Shift key. For example, simply pressing "A" will type the letter a,
but if you hold down either
Alt keyAlt key while pressing A, the computer
will perform an Alt+A function, which varies from program to program.
The international standard ISO/IEC 9995-2 calls it Alternate key. The
key is located on either side of the Space bar, but in non-US PC
keyboard layouts, rather than a second Alt key, there is an 'Alt Gr'
key to the right of the space bar
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Esc Key
On computer keyboards, the Esc key (named Escape key in the
international standard series ISO/IEC 9995) is a key used to generate
the escape character (which can be represented as ASCII code 27 in
decimal, Unicode U+001B, or Ctrl+[)
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Tab Key
The tab key Tab ↹ (abbreviation of tabulator key[1] or tabular
key[2]) on a keyboard is used to advance the cursor to the next tab
stop.Contents1 History
2 Modern usage
3 Tab characters3.1
Tab-separated values (TSV)
3.2 HTML
3.3 Unicode4 See also
5 References
6 External linksHistory[edit]The tab rack from a
FlexowriterFlexowriter model 2201. On this machine, the
tab-rack is removable for easy reconfiguration.The word tab derives from the word tabulate, which means "to arrange
data in a tabular, or table, form." When a person wanted to type a
table (of numbers or text) on a typewriter, there was a lot of
time-consuming and repetitive use of the space bar and backspace key.
To simplify this, a horizontal bar was placed in the mechanism called
the tabulator rack. Pressing the tab key would advance the carriage to
the next tabulator stop
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Numeric Keypad
A numeric keypad, number pad, numpad, or ten key,[1][2][3] is the
palm-sized, 17-key section of a standard computer keyboard, usually on
the far right. It provides calculator-style efficiency for entering
numbers. The numpad's keys are digits 0 to 9, + (addition), -
(subtraction), * (multiplication) and / (division) symbols, . (decimal
point), Num Lock, and ↵ Enter keys.[4]
LaptopLaptop keyboards often do not have a numpad, but may provide numpad
input by holding a modifier key (typically labelled Fn) and operating
keys on the standard keyboard
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Productivity Software
Productivity software (sometimes called personal productivity software
or office productivity software[1]) is application software dedicated
to producing information, such as documents, presentations,
worksheets, databases, charts, graphs, digital paintings, electronic
music and digital video.[2] Its names arose from the fact that it
increases productivity, especially of individual office workers, from
typists to knowledge workers, although its scope is now wider than
that. Office suites, which brought word processing, spreadsheet, and
relational database programs to the desktop in the 1980s, are the core
example of productivity software. They revolutionized the office with
the magnitude of the productivity increase they brought as compared
with the pre-1980s office environments of typewriters, paper filing,
and handwritten lists and ledgers
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Machine LanguageMachine codeMachine code or machine language is a set of instructions executed
directly by a computer's central processing unit (CPU). Each
instruction performs a very specific task, such as a load, a jump, or
an ALU operation on a unit of data in a CPU register or memory. Every
program directly executed by a CPU is made up of a series of such
instructions
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MLX (software)
MLX is a series of machine language entry utilities published by the
magazines COMPUTE! and COMPUTE!'s Gazette, as well as books from
COMPUTE! Publications. These programs were designed to allow
relatively easy entry of the type-in machine language listings that
were often included in these publications
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Megahertz
The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the derived unit of frequency in the
International System of UnitsInternational System of Units (SI) and is defined as one cycle per
second.[1] It is named for Heinrich Rudolf Hertz, the first person to
provide conclusive proof of the existence of electromagnetic waves.
HertzHertz are commonly expressed in multiples: kilohertz (103 Hz, kHz),
megahertz (106 Hz, MHz), gigahertz (109 Hz, GHz), and terahertz (1012
Hz, THz).
Some of the unit's most common uses are in the description of sine
waves and musical tones, particularly those used in radio- and
audio-related applications
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MultiprocessingMultiprocessing is the use of two or more central processing units
(CPUs) within a single computer system.[1][2] The term also refers to
the ability of a system to support more than one processor or the
ability to allocate tasks between them
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Heat Sink
A heat sink (also commonly spelled heatsink[1]) is a passive heat
exchanger that transfers the heat generated by an electronic or a
mechanical device to a fluid medium, often air or a liquid coolant,
where it is dissipated away from the device, thereby allowing
regulation of the device's temperature at optimal levels. In
computers, heat sinks are used to cool central processing units or
graphics processors. Heat sinks are used with high-power semiconductor
devices such as power transistors and optoelectronics such as lasers
and light emitting diodes (LEDs), where the heat dissipation ability
of the component itself is insufficient to moderate its temperature.
A heat sink is designed to maximize its surface area in contact with
the cooling medium surrounding it, such as the air. Air velocity,
choice of material, protrusion design and surface treatment are
factors that affect the performance of a heat sink
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Mode (computer Interface)
In user interface design, a mode is a distinct setting within a
computer program or any physical machine interface, in which the same
user input will produce perceived results different to those that it
would in other settings
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